Grateful

The world is richer when you stop for a moment to think of all the things you have to be grateful for. Almost anyone living in our country has an immense amount to be thankful for: clean water, shelter, food…all those things that we take for granted every day.

I could list all those things, but so could you. We know what they are already, don't we? I thought instead I’d focus on the smaller things, the things that are unique to me. Maybe you’ll recognize some of the items on my list as things that you’re grateful for too, or maybe you'll just be thankful that you have better things on your list this Thanksgiving.

·         Closing my eyes at night and not opening them again until morning       

·         Apples that shock me with their crispness

·         Cold milk

·         Laughing so hard with my kids that I cry

·         Making things with my hands

·         New ideas that make me itch to start them

·         Finishing when it isn’t easy

·         Creating

·         People who write beautiful words that make me jealous and excited all at once

·         A husband who does the small things, like turning on my bed warmer so that my toes will be snugglywhen I climb into bed

·         Hot showers

·         Music that makes me want to sing at the top of my lungs

·         Paper

·         Clean laundry when it’s folded and all put away

·         Sitting around the dinner table with my family

·         Rain against the windows

·         Warm socks

·         The freedom to have my own opinion

·         Coconut ice cream

·         Sunlight shining through leaves

·         Good morning hugs

·         The minutes when the words come easily

·         My fuzzy down blanket

·         A clean kitchen floor

·         Red stoplights at dusk

·         Major and minor chords

·         The smell of soap and freshly washed hair

·         The promise of someday soon